A Sponsored Story is a tailored advertisement that appears on members' Facebook pages, highlighting products a user's friends have endorsed or "liked" on the site.

The lawsuit was filed in early 2011 after Facebook launched its Sponsored Stories advertising program.

Approximately 614,000 Facebook users whose personal details appeared in ads on the site without their permission will each receive a $15 (£9.65) payout.

The money will be shared between attorneys, Internet privacy rights groups, and Facebook users who filed claims in the class-action lawsuit.

The names and pictures of an estimated 150 million Facebook members were used in Sponsored Stories, but only those who responded to an email from the site earlier this year will be compensated.

Privacy organizations will also receive some of the $20m (£12.9m) settlement.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in California rejected a settlement in August over Facebook's 'Sponsored Stories' advertising feature, questioning why it did not award money to Facebook members for using their personal information.

The payout was approved by a US court on Monday following a class action filed against Facebook in 2011 by five of its users.

The group said their details had been used to promote products and services through the site's Sponsored Stories programme, without paying them or giving them the choice to opt-out.

The court estimated that Facebook had made about $73m (£47m) in profit from the Sponsored Stories featuring details of the 150 million members.

Facebook charged advertisers nearly $234 million for Sponsored Stories between January 2011 and August 2012

Approximately 7,000 Facebook users opted out of the settlement altogether, allowing them to bring their own legal action against the social network.

Did you reply to that class action notice from Facebook? If so, you get $15 as a result of a “sponsored stories” lawsuit that shone light on the way lawyers and activists represent privacy concerns.